The Arts Club Theatre Company’s production of The Penelopiad, Margaret Atwood’s feminist take on the tale of Odysseus, led the field for nominations in the 30th annual Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. Atop the Arts Club’s nine nominations for The Penelopiad stands lead actress Meg Roe, who is joined in the best actress (large theatre) category by Kathleen Duborg in Snowman (by Rumble Productions) and Marci T. House (Intimate Apparel), Terra C. MacLeod (Blood Brothers) and Caitriona Murphy (Next to Normal), all Arts Club shows.

The Arts Club was also strong in small-theatre categories with its production of Do You Want What I Have Got? A Craigslist Cantata, which received six nominations. But the leader in small theatre, with eight nominations, is the Electric Company Theatre’s production of All the Way Home.

Theatre for young audiences nominations were dominated by Carousel Theatre, with 11 nods — five each for The Wizard of Oz and Aesop’s Fables, and one nomination for A Year With Frog and Toad.

In its last chance for recognition, the now-defunct Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company garnered seven nominations, four of them for La Cage Aux Folles. Greg Armstrong-Morris is in the running for best actor (large theatre) with his performance in La Cage; he’s up against Bob Frazer for Richard III (Bard on the Beach), Warren Kimmel for Next to Normal (Arts Club), Kevin MacDonald for The Idiot (Neworld Theatre) and Derek Metz for Snowman (Rumble).

In small theatre, Meg Roe is also in the running for best actress for All the Way Home (Electric Company Theatre), and her co-star Jonathon Young is nominated for best actor. Roe joins Anna Cummer (Osimous Theatre’s Hedda Gabler), Nicola Elbro (Gateway Theatre’s Mary’s Wedding), Gabrielle Rose (Arts Club’s Scar Tissue) and Deborah Williams (Solo Collective’s After Jerusalem); on the male side, Young joins Thomas Jones (for the Two Dollar Shoes Equity Co-op production of Woody Sed), Aleks Paunovic (Danny and the Deep Blue Sea by Annunciation Pictures) and Andrew Wheeler for two shows, Re:Union by Pacific Theatre and Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre, and the Arts Club’s Gordon.

Arts Club dominates Jessies nominations

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